Please note: this event has passed
The Queer@King's Reading Group is open to all, including students and researchers from King's and other London universities and interested members of the community. The group meets monthly on Tuesdays to discuss readings, screenings, and points of queer interest. This week the participants will read an article by Alyosxa Tudor:
In this article, the author argues that a decolonial perspective on gender means conceptualizing it as always already trans. The object of investigation is gender as a category and gender studies as a field of knowledge. To discuss what decolonizing trans/gender studies in Europe could mean, the author aims to bring different strands together that have been held apart so far: resistance against global attacks on gender studies, resistance against transphobic feminism, and the “decolonising the curriculum” movement in the United Kingdom. A critical focus on Eurocentric knowledge and truth claims means to define Europe as a complex set of geopolitical, historical, and epistemological processes and not just as a neutral location. At British universities, a mostly student-led movement has started to emerge that fights for decolonizing higher education. This movement is inspired by transnational student movements like Rhodes/Fees Must Fall in South Africa and calls for challenging racist, colonialist, nationalist, and neoliberal paradigms in knowledge production by addressing both issues of epistemology and access to higher education. Applying central political claims of the “decolonising the curriculum” movement, the author explores potentials and challenges of the task of decolonizing trans/gender studies in Europe and the global North. The author's intervention opens up a discussion on how to conceptualize knowledge on transgender with a central focus on decolonial and transnational perspectives.
All meetings will take place online, using MS teams. To receive the meeting link, please email queer@kcl.ac.uk.
We kindly ask that, if you can, please turn your camera on during introductions. This is to create a safe space. There will be a comfort break in the middle of the session.
Want to volunteer to lead a session or suggest a reading? Email us or join the Facebook Group.